THE ARMISTICE TERMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17007, 14 November 1918, Page 4

THE ARMISTICE TERMS.

The terms of the armistice thrust by military necessity upon Germany are such as to evidence the complete failure of the German attack upon the civilised nations, and to prepare for a lasting peace. Aiming to capture Paris and the Channel ports, the enemy has now been forced to surrender all invaded territory, and even large fortified towns and adjacent lands within the sanctity of his natural boundary are to be occupied by the Allies. That is the Allies' crushing answer to the enemy's challenge of the rights of Belgium, France, and Britain. It is complete. But worse remains for him: Alsace-Lorraine, the prize he ruthlessly seized in 1871 and has exploited in this war, is to be evacuated also. That is the preliminary reply to his sophistries about the German character of this " invaded" province. To ensure his inability further to contest the issue, he must yield largo quantities of guns, ammunition, and war material. He who would rule by regiments rather than by Parliaments, may justifiably be taught a lesson by this means: it is at least a lesson he can understand. All his submarines in commission have now to be given up, and under the supervision of his victors, he is 'so to dispose of the rest of his fleet as co prevent its firing another gun until the Allies give permission. It will be remembered that after the Jutland fight the Kaiser, in a flamboyant speech, declared that " the British fleet was beaten," that "the first great hammer-blow was struck, and the nimbus of British world supremacy disappeared." The naval terms of the armistice confirm the answer that has been earlier given to his braggart boast by the raids of Ostend and Zeebrugge, and by the unhindered patrol of our Grand Fleet in the North Sea. The Baltic, too, is to be free of his menace. On the eastern front the boundaries existing before the war are to be restored. This enforced withdrawal of German troops from Russia will reverse his advantages in that stricken land, while similar evacuations from Roumania and Turkey will dispose of his claims upon the wealth that his cupidity has coveted in these ravaged territories. The abandonment of the Bucharest ant Litovsk treaties will further secure these areas from his ravages. It must be remembered that, although the armistice is limited in duration to thirty-six days, and is enforced by military authorities with definitely military aims, its conditions may well be significant of the final settlement. At all events, where exactions now made are modified by that settlement, there is a certainty that no territorial or other privileges will be restored without safeguards preventing their employment against | alien peoples. Such is the fate of Germany after an appeal to ordeal) by battle. No other conclusion than such a complete military exaction could have met the needs of the oaßOk.